


Riding Lessons

by clgfanfic



Category: War of the Worlds (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-17
Updated: 2012-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-18 20:25:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/564940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clgfanfic/pseuds/clgfanfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Paul gives Debi riding lessons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Riding Lessons

_"You ready to try that canter?"_

 

          Debi McCullough waited impatiently for the colonel to finish brushing down the tall gelding's back.  At seventeen hands, the animal was just slightly too tall for her to reach.  When he finished, Ironhorse tossed the brush back into the grooming box and smiled at the twelve-year-old.

          "So, Miss McCullough, are you ready for your first lesson in riding bareback?" he asked.

          Debi nodded enthusiastically.  Dressed in blue jeans, cowboy boots and a long-sleeve flannel shirt, the Special Forces officer didn't look quite so imposing, although the girl never had fallen for all the bluster her mother and the other members of the Blackwood Project team tried to avoid.  Three months living at the Cottage and he'd already given her several western riding lessons (to balance the English ones Mr. Kensington was also providing), taken her swimming in the Pacific, and had told her several stories about Indians.  She decided that her mother, Norton, and Dr. Blackwood just didn't understand the colonel like she did.

          It was nice that way.  She smiled, only half listening as Ironhorse explained the finer points of bareback horsemanship.  It was like she had a secret friend.  There were times she wished she were more like the other kids she saw at school, but something inside told her it was already too late.  There was very important work going on at the Cottage, and her mother, the colonel, and the others were all a part of it.  Someday, she decided, she would be too.  But until then, she'd be happy with having the colonel to herself.

          "Debi, are you ready?" he asked again.

          "Huh?" Debi asked, realizing that he'd been telling her something he thought was important.

          "Were you paying attention?" he asked, one eyebrow climbing slightly in disapproval.

          "Of course I was," she bluffed.  "Can we ride now?"

          Ironhorse chuckled softly.  "I guess I've forgotten the importance of a ride for a twelve-year-old," he commented more to himself than to Debi.  "I'll get on and then pull you up behind me, okay?"

          "Okay."

          With an easy grace, Ironhorse swung up onto Ulysses' back.  The horse sidestepped as the colonel settled himself and shortened the amount of rein the animal had.  Debi waited until he leaned over the animal's withers and extended his hand.  She grabbed it, saying, "I don't think I can jump that far."

"You don't need to," he replied, hefting her up.  Before she realized it, her leg slipped over the gelding's back and she slid on behind the colonel, her fingers immediately wrapping into the gathered material tucked into his jeans.  The colonel

stiffened slightly, but asked, "All settled?"

          "I think so," she said, a note of hesitancy in her voice.

          He directed the horse to the gate of the riding arena, entering and closing it behind them.  "We'll start out slow.  I want you to feel the movement of the horse as we go.  There's a rhythm to it, just like there is when you're using a saddle, but this is more immediate."

          "Immediate?"

          He smiled.  "Since there's nothing between you and the horse, you're feeling what he's doing directly."

          "Oh," she said.  "Are we going to go faster than a walk?"

          "Get used to this first.  We won't want to trot, but we can try a slow canter."

          "Can we go out by the pond?" she asked as the gelding picked up speed a little, moving into a pace.

          "I don't know, Debi.  The ground's a little rough and wet out there."

          "That's okay.  I ride out there all the time.  Mr. Kensington just watches me to be sure everything's okay."

          "We'll see then.  You ready to try that canter?"

          "Uh-huh," she said.

          Ironhorse cued the gelding and he stepped out into a slow, even lope.  Debi bounced along while the colonel explained to her how to use her center of gravity, the horse's motion, and her legs to keep her more firmly anchored.  In a few minutes she was settled.

          After several circles around the arena, the colonel pulled Ulysses up at the gate.  "The pond, is it?"

          "Yeah."

          "Okay, but remember what I told you."

          "I will."

 

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

 

          Still holding on to the material of his shirt, Debi tried to remember all the things the colonel had told her as the bay made his way around the large pond.  Guiding the horse in and out of the trees kept Ironhorse occupied, so he missed seeing Harrison Blackwood when the scientist left the Cottage and started down to his favorite rock under a maple tree near the water.

          Debi saw Harrison, but didn't want to let go to wave at him.  She refocused on the colonel and the way he seemed to move in perfect time with the animal.  She blushed slightly.  He was cute.  Her friend from The New Pacific Institute, Sandy Henderson, would be very jealous if she ever saw the colonel, but Debi hadn't seen the girl since they had all moved to the Cottage.

 _And I don't really miss her_ , Debi thought.  A spark of guilt ignited in the girl's chest.  She was happy at the Cottage, and for the time being loneliness was being held off by the new experiences.  The image of her father eluded her, she chewed her lower lip.  She hadn't even missed him for a while.  Her eyes fixed on the back of the colonel's head.  His black hair was very different from her father's slightly curly light brown.  Her father was bigger than the colonel, too, a thought which surprised her.  But her father had never taken her horseback riding, either, or swimming in the ocean, or told her stories – except when he used to read books to her at bedtime, but then he'd sometimes yawn and drop off to sleep before he finished.

          Debi rubbed her thumbs against the soft cotton of the colonel's flannel shirt.  Her father didn't wear jeans, or flannel shirts.  He never wore cowboy boots or moccasins either.  She frowned, wondering why he hadn't called her on her birthday.  Her mom and the others had given her a party.  They'd even played games, and Mrs. Pennyworth had baked a big cake.  It had been a lot of fun, and the frown gave way to a smile as she remembered the colonel getting teased by Dr. Blackwood about the silly party hat the soldier was wearing – a pointed, direct order later, Harrison was wearing one, too.

          "Hold on, Deb," Ironhorse said, his voice cutting through her thoughts and scattering the confused feelings.  "It's a little wet here from that rain we had."

          "Okay," she said, her gaze sweeping over the ground to find it mostly a dark, slimy mud.  The horse's hooves made a smacking sound as he picked his path though the mud.  A loud birdcall from the trees overhead caught her attention and, looking up, Debi saw a small nest clinging precariously to a branch nearby.

"Colonel," she said, tapping him on the shoulder.  "See that nest?  It's going to fall off."  The soldier spotted the object and directed the gelding over for a closer look.  Inside the nest they found two small speckled eggs.  "Can you push it up?  I can't reach," she said, making an attempt that had the bay shying away.

          "Easy, Deb, ol' Ulysses here is already a little nervous about all the mud.  I'll see if I can reach it."

          It was difficult to get the gelding's cooperation, the mud and low hanging branches making it difficult for the animal to get as close as the colonel was insisting on.  With a nervous snort at the treacherous footing, Ulysses sidled in close enough for Ironhorse to reach out and push the nest with the tip of one finger.

          THe operation did not go unnoticed.  Harrison Blackwood watched the pair from his perch on a rock near the pond and the nesting bird watched from her vantage point farther up in the same tree.  With an irritated squawk she launched herself at the same time as Blackwood stood.

Several aspects of chaos met in a single instant:  Ulysses noticed Blackwood, for the first time; the bird attacked Debi, causing her to squeal and grab for the nearest handhold, the colonel's ribcage; Ironhorse yelped as he was tickled for the first time in years, and the gelding decided he'd had enough.  With a quick sidestep and a crow-hop he unseated the already off-balance soldier just as he managed to return the nest to its rightful place.

          The colonel fell face first into the slick mud.

          Debi's fingers sank into a death grip in the animal's mane as she clung to the bay in order to keep her seat.  As soon as the horse was away from the trees he calmed down, and the girl gathered the reins up and called, "Colonel, are you okay?"

          The half-stifled profanity slipping past the trees made Debi's eyes widen slightly, but it was the distinct voice of Harrison Blackwood that truly surprised her.

          "Maybe the pony rides would be a better idea, Colonel.  Need a hand?"

          "No!"


End file.
